Product providers often utilize visual configurators to allow their customers to view available products in a variety of offered product configurations. Visual configurators allow shoppers to explore a range of configurations (combinations of arrangements, colors and textures) in which a product is available without requiring a provider of such products to explicitly provide digital assets for each of the numerous available combinations. For instance, suppose a particular company has automobiles for sale that are available in a plethora of exterior colors and with multiple different interiors, wheel types, trim, and the like. As the number of available options and options configurations increases, the task for the company would become increasingly difficult and labor-intensive if it was necessary to provide an image of each and every options configuration available. Not providing an image of all available configurations, however, may cost the company sales as users often want to view a visual image of exactly what they are purchasing before making the decision to buy. Visual configurators permit a product provider, rather than providing an image of each possible options configuration, to provide a limited number of images of the product along with images of the available options (e.g., color swatches) that are not applied to product images. Visual configurators are designed to composite product images with images of available options and to deliver a single customized image having a desired options configuration.
Cases where products are available in multiple textures present a challenging situation for visual configurators. Suppose, for instance, that rather than cars, a company sells soft furnishings or apparel items that are available not only in fabrics of different colors but also in fabrics of different textures. Generating convincing and authentic visualizations of the resultant product configurations is more challenging in this case as simply applying a textural pattern to an object without regard for the geometric distortions caused by viewing a three-dimensional object in two dimensions results in physically unrealistic images.
Specialized desktop visual configuration software is available that permits generation of texture maps that simulate the three-dimensionality of an object and the resultant distortion of applied textures. Applying a texture map to an object and compositing it with an image of a desired texture permits warping of the textural image which generates a realistic looking output image of the object with the texture applied. Such specialized desktop visual configuration software is generally expensive, requires specialized skill to utilize, applies to limited platforms, and is available only on a device on which it is installed.